Politics: December 2009

The National Center for Transgender Equality announced today, Thursday, that Amanda Simpson, a transgender woman with thirty years of experience in the aerospace industry, has been appointed by the Obama Administration as a Senior Technical Advisor to the Department of...Read More

The National Center for Transgender Equality announced today, Thursday, that Amanda Simpson, a transgender woman with thirty years of experience in the aerospace industry, has been appointed by the Obama Administration as a Senior Technical Advisor to the Department of...Read More

The New York Times published an interview on Monday with Vidari DeGuzman, a youth worker at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a service organization for LGBT youth in New York City. Although relatively short, I found the interview revealing about issues of...Read More

2009 was a year of momentum for the LGBT community. For the first time, federal legislation was passed that included sexual orientation and gender identity, over 250,000+ LGBT people and allies marched on Washington for civil rights, same-sex marriage was...Read More

2009 was a year of momentum for the LGBT community. For the first time, federal legislation was passed that included sexual orientation and gender identity, over 250,000+ LGBT people and allies marched on Washington for civil rights, same-sex marriage was...Read More

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Chris Geidner is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who blogs at Law Dork, is a regular contributor to Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com and elsewhere. You also can follow him on...Read More

I always knew there was something special about living in Indiana. I never knew it was that we are so backwards that we allow first cousins to marry - but only if they're of opposite sex, of course. We don't...Read More

I always knew there was something special about living in Indiana. I never knew it was that we are so backwards that we allow first cousins to marry - but only if they're of opposite sex, of course. We don't...Read More

About a month ago a Buenos Aires judge ruled that the city couldn't ban same-sex marriage, and activists Jose Maria Di Bello and Alex Freyre set their wedding date for December first, World AIDS Day. Later that week, a federal...Read More

The LGBT community has been working for immigration reform for years. Our families are regularly split apart because we can not sponsor our foreign born loved ones for citizenship like married heterosexual couples can. Americans are forced to split up...Read More

Colin Farrell's brother Eamon just got married to his partner Stephen. Congrats to the couple. But I can't help but wondering why they did it, and I know that there are more than a few people who read this site...Read More

I posted about a month ago about India's decision to allow people to choose "O" for "other" under gender in voter registration forms. Today, I found this story from Reuters on the Pakistani Supreme Court requiring the government to allow...Read More

Next week, the Association of American Law Schools will hold its annual meeting in New Orleans. This is the annual meeting of law professors from across the country. In acknowledgment of the needs of same-sex and unmarried partners in a...Read More

While openly gay Jacob Meister campaigns over on the Democratic side, it seems the Republican contest for the Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama is the contest with the real gay scandal. Illinois Republican Representative and active Navy...Read More

While openly gay Jacob Meister campaigns over on the Democratic side, it seems the Republican contest for the Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama is the contest with the real gay scandal. Illinois Republican Representative and active Navy...Read More

An interesting conundrum in the Washington DC area has two different groups of LGBT citizens lining up on opposing sides of a free speech issue. Stand For Marriage DC, an anti-gay group trying to reverse the recent decision to approve...Read More

Here's a weird story from Australia: During a family barbecue around Christmas time in 2007, the dad allegedly phoned a prostitute and arranged to meet her at a motel on Yaamba Road, North Rockhampton. The father drove his son to...Read More

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Rachel Dunn is an out and proud trans-lesbian filmmaker living in Los Angeles. Although very supportive of community events, her primary activism comes in the form of fostering and contributing to queer and minority film projects...Read More

Editors' Note: Guest blogger April Rose, a Two-Spirits author, speaker and raconteur on all things trans, lives in New Mexico where she is currently developing a website that will implement her desire to educate people about living with integrity and...Read More

Morgan Meneses-Sheets, Executive Director of Equality Maryland reports that the Maryland Vehicle Administration (MVA) will not alter its current gender/sex marker revision policy in the immediate future. She released the following email received from the Office of the Attorney General...Read More

Editor's Note: Jim Toevs was a member of the founding Board of Directors, and is a past President of The Pride Foundation of Seattle. In 1990, he co-founded the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, (IGLHRC) with Roman Kalinin...Read More

No one reading my columns here and knowing my view of LGBT rights in the Obama era will mistake me for a dewy-eyed optimist. At the same time, however, the prediction that "Obama does nada on gay rights" in 2010...Read More

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Tod Hill is the Vice President of Marketing & Business Development for the Tides Center In a recent article entitled Charities Rise, Costing U.S. Billions in Tax Breaks, Stephanie Strom of the New York Times raises...Read More

Mexico City has become the first Latin American city to legalize same-sex marriage. While other cities have passed civil union registrations, Mexico City is the first to give LGBT citizens the full equality. The new law also gives gay couples...Read More

This post went in a different direction, but I'd be remiss if I didn't link to this blog post from the Center for American Progress on how the Senate's health care bill does nothing to address various unique ways in...Read More

This member of Parliament, who's openly gay, caused quite a stir with his Christmas card. It's kinda Brokeback, but I can't think of a more tasteful way to do it. Go him. Update: Scott Brison responds:...Read More

This video is so damned disturbing that I couldn't watch it all the way through. Randall Terry of Operation Rescue infamy, has started a new television show called "Insurrecta Nex." They recently had a health care reform video contest called...Read More

Try as I may to avoid them, there really isn't anyway I can not post on the fact that any hope of getting LGBT legislation through in 2010 is shot. Jillian Weiss pointed to the article in The Hill this...Read More

Fellow contributor Adam Bink wrote on Open Left about the following Newsweek prediction for 2010: Patience became the 2009 mantra of the gay rights movement, which generally supports Democrats. Many activists believe that in his heart Obama supports their flagship...Read More

Mayor Adrian Fenty has signed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, following the overwhelming vote in support of marriage equality by the Washington DC City Council on Tuesday. With today's bill signing, the District has...Read More

You remember The Purple Tunnel of Doom from President Obama's Inauguration? Turns out some legislation is still waiting on that line. Adam Bink of Open Left says there is more trouble for ENDA, as well as the rest of the...Read More

You remember The Purple Tunnel of Doom from President Obama's Inauguration? Turns out some legislation is still waiting on that line. Adam Bink of Open Left says there is more trouble for ENDA, as well as the rest of the...Read More

Mayor Adrian Fenty has announced he will sign the DC marriage bill on Friday morning. Details are below. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 17, 2009 Fenty to Sign Same Sex Marriage Legislation WHAT: Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to take historic step...Read More

Dana Beyer, senior aide to Montgomery County, Maryland Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg, has been caught up in a politically motivated ethics charge being pushed by fundamentalists with the help of Democrats. Beyer, a frequent Bilerico reader and commenter, is a transgender...Read More

The Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee passed the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act yesterday. Partners of federal employees are now one step closer to getting the same benefits offered to spouses of heterosexual employees. These benefits include...Read More

I've never been prouder to live in Washington, D.C. than this week when the DC Council voted to recognize same-sex marriages. Come next spring, D.C. will be this country's only major city in which marriage equality is the law, Congress'...Read More

Time and again, I’ve written about how the disastrous consequences of the Bush administration’s HIV/AIDS policy agenda in Africa. Yes, Bush increased aid to Africa. Yes, the Bush administration’s global AIDS policy has been cited as a redeeming positive...Read More

GOProud, the wingnutty cousin to the Goldwater conservatives at Log Cabin, announced last week that they'd be co-sponsoring the CPAC (big, annual conservative conference famous for homophobia). A few people pointed out that they'd be cosponsoring with folks like NOM...Read More

Pre-operative transgender individuals can change their driver's license gender marker in Maryland without genital surgery. It was a pleasant discovery for me shortly after relocating to the east coast in 2008. The department of motor vehicles requires supporting letters from...Read More

Pre-operative transgender individuals can change their driver's license gender marker in Maryland without genital surgery. It was a pleasant discovery for me shortly after relocating to the east coast in 2008. The department of motor vehicles requires supporting letters from...Read More

Jessica Hoffmann posted a few weeks ago about LGBT folks getting treated worse as a result of the coup in Honduras. Now a prominent gay activist has been found dead. He was already targeted by police for speaking out against...Read More

The three police officers holding down one person must have been in serious danger here, since they Tasers are sold as just a safer tool to use than a gun. But is that how the police would have handled this...Read More

Focus on the Family has decided to target Indiana again in their push for same-sex marriage amendments. While DC took a huge step forward today, FOF is resorting to their usual scare tactics to frighten the sheeple. Yes, that's right....Read More

Congratulations to our nation's capital for approving same-sex marriage. While DC started recognizing marriages from outside of the district earlier this year, now they've gone one step further and have taken a firm stand for equality. The bill will now...Read More

This is infuriating. If there was ever a reason for steam to come out of your ears, it's this... Senator Joe Lieberman is flip-flopping on his health care vote and will now oppose the legislation, leaving it vulnerable to a...Read More

Ed Mullen, Democratic candidate for Illinois State Assembly District 11, got a bit of good news this weekend. He found out that the Victory Fund will officially endorse him in his primary. This is good news for his home town...Read More

But it's something: A brothel industry lobbyist -- in what could be considered a befuddling double standard -- bemoaned the change, comparing it to the industry's "Pearl Harbor." He managed to voice concerns about homosexual sex entering the industry without...Read More

As many of you Projectors already know, Annise Parker handily won her runoff election race against city attorney Gene Locke Saturday night to become only the second woman elected as mayor of my hometown. It was a watershed moment in...Read More

Editors' note: Meghan Stabler is a nationally recognized spokesperson and activist for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and most importantly Transgender community. Meghan's leadership style and advocacy for LGBT equality is reflected in her positions as a member of AETNA Healthcare...Read More

What on earth was Heather Steans' husband Leo Smith doing at the Jim Madigan community fundraiser Thursday night (even though he didn't pay to get in)? It certainly wasn't a diplomatic outreach mission. The prominent donor to shamed former Governor...Read More

Annise Parker, an out lesbian and solid progressive, is running for Mayor of Houston, and the runoff election is today. She has a slim lead in the polls. I posted an interview earlier this week with Annise, in which I...Read More

Jerry Nadler's talking some sense. DOMA repeal is the equivalent legalizing same-sex marriage in the minds of a good deal of Americans and a majority of Congress, and it's toxic right now. "The Respect for Marriage Act is a bill...Read More

While I was in San Francisco for the Victory Fund's Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference, I had a chance to speak with Representative Tammy Baldwin after her plenary panel discussion. We talked about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and other...Read More

I want to elaborate on my earlier post about ENDA, which some persons have misread, no doubt because my language was not clear enough. I did NOT mean to break any news or to cause any freak-outs about the work...Read More

I want to elaborate on my earlier post about ENDA, which some persons have misread, no doubt because my language was not clear enough. I did NOT mean to break any news or to cause any freak-outs about the work...Read More

For shame: The Nebraska Supreme Court has dismissed Shirley Phelps-Roper's latest appeal in a case involving a Nebraska flag-desecration law, but her attorney said the legal battle isn't over. Phelps-Roper was arrested in 2007 for letting her then-10-year-old son stand...Read More

While I was in San Francisco for the Victory Fund's Gay & Lesbian Leadership Conference, I had a chance to speak with Representative Jared Polis after his plenary panel discussion. We talked about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) and other...Read More

The joint statement issued last week by all the major lgbt rights organizations designed to generate alarm about the delay in ENDA should be heeded. ENDA is over for 2009. Why? Not because members of Congress are lazy or dismissive,...Read More

The joint statement issued last week by all the major lgbt rights organizations designed to generate alarm about the delay in ENDA should be heeded. ENDA is over for 2009. Why? Not because members of Congress are lazy or dismissive,...Read More

I had a chance to sit down with contributor Kate Clinton at the Victory Fund's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Conference to talk about her experiences at the White House state dinner last month. Kate and her partner, Urvashi Vaid, were...Read More

Zikerria Bellamy, with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, is suing McDeath after she was rejected from a job there. The manager left a message on her machine saying that he doesn't hire "faggots." Good for her: A lawsuit...Read More

In this past Sunday's Richmond Times Dispatch former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder - the first black elected to a governorship since Reconstruction - has a message that ought to kindle fear in the hearts of national Democrats. In his op-ed...Read More

In this past Sunday's Richmond Times Dispatch former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder - the first black elected to a governorship since Reconstruction - has a message that ought to kindle fear in the hearts of national Democrats. In his op-ed...Read More

In this past Sunday's Richmond Times Dispatch former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder - the first black elected to a governorship since Reconstruction - has a message that ought to kindle fear in the hearts of national Democrats. In his op-ed...Read More

Editors' Note: Representative Andre Carson is today's guest blogger. Congressman Carson is a Democrat who represents the Indianapolis area. He is a co-sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) legislation currently waiting for mark-up in a House committee. We all...Read More

Editors' Note: Representative Andre Carson is today's guest blogger. Congressman Carson is a Democrat who represents the Indianapolis area. He is a co-sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) legislation currently waiting for mark-up in a House committee. We all...Read More

How do you divert attention from an endless war in Afghanistan? Call Tiger Woods. It seems we are all too busy counting mistresses than troops being sent overseas. Less than a week, and our attention is diverted. Um, hello? People?...Read More

In response to the recent denial of same-sex marriage to LGBT people in New York, Jamie Frevele is auctioning off her right to marry as a heterosexual woman on EBay. What do you think about this? Here's her reasoning:...Read More

Late last week I talked to Annise Parker, the out lesbian and Houston City Controller who is running for Mayor of Houston. Annise is in a run-off, and the election is this Saturday. If elected against her opponent- a lobbyist...Read More

Editor's Note: Guest blogger Adrian Matanza is HRC's field organizer. He is currently working to increase support for an inclusive ENDA in Indiana. HRC is the only national organization working in Indiana in support of the legislation, while Indiana Equality...Read More

State Senator Ed Murray led the charge in Washington for the last three years that eventually resulted in our "everything but marriage" victory last November. Senator Murray was initially criticized for his incremental approach by some in the community. I...Read More

State Senator Ed Murray led the charge in Washington for the last three years that eventually resulted in our "everything but marriage" victory last November. Senator Murray was initially criticized for his incremental approach by some in the community. I...Read More

I posted this morning the message a McDonald's manager left on a transgender applicant's machine. Here's the transcript the TLDEF put together, via Autumn: TLDEF Files Employment Discrimination Complaint with Florida Commission on Human Relations Against McDonald's for Refusing to...Read More

Bil posted video this weekend of John Berry, the head of the OPM, discussing that case where a federal judge ordered the government to pay for the health care benefits of a lesbian employee's partner. The Obama Adminstration refused to...Read More

John A. Perez reminds me to put the initial "A" in his name when I write stories about him. I don't know how many other people with the name "John Perez" there might be in the state of California -...Read More

One has to wonder why Gov. Tim Kaine has waited until the waning weeks of his term to begin to implement the plan to belatedly extend health care benefits to the same sex partners of Virginia State employees. Up until...Read More

One has to wonder why Gov. Tim Kaine has waited until the waning weeks of his term to begin to implement the plan to belatedly extend health care benefits to the same sex partners of Virginia State employees. Up until...Read More

HRC announced on its Backstory blog late Friday afternoon that it had been officially informed by the House Committee on Labor and Education that ENDA will not be considered by the House this year. I have been privileged to write...Read More

HRC announced on its Backstory blog late Friday afternoon that it had been officially informed by the House Committee on Labor and Education that ENDA will not be considered by the House this year. I have been privileged to write...Read More

Washington's new domestic partnership expansion law went into effect last week on December 3. My partner and I marked the occasion by registering as Domestic Partners with the state of Washington. We are already running into challenges. According to the...Read More

Washington's new domestic partnership expansion law went into effect last week on December 3. My partner and I marked the occasion by registering as Domestic Partners with the state of Washington. We are already running into challenges. According to the...Read More

Much has been made of the Obama administration's decision to defy a California judge's order that they enroll a lesbian federal employee's partner as her health-insurance beneficiary. While Alex called the struggle "a power battle between the judiciary and the...Read More

Since November Adrian Matanza, an HRC organizer, has been Hitting the Road In Indiana working to build support for an inclusive ENDA. This effort is coming to South Bend, Indiana Monday December 7th when Mr. Matanza and constituents from the...Read More

Since November Adrian Matanza, an HRC organizer, has been Hitting the Road In Indiana working to build support for an inclusive ENDA. This effort is coming to South Bend, Indiana Monday December 7th when Mr. Matanza and constituents from the...Read More

Since November Adrian Matanza, an HRC organizer, has been Hitting the Road In Indiana working to build support for an inclusive ENDA. This effort is coming to South Bend, Indiana Monday December 7th when Mr. Matanza and constituents from the...Read More

The global economic recession has been rolling over the world full force for over a year now. We have seen the markets flowing in red, homeowners being turned out at a rate not seen since the great depression, and the...Read More

While Andrew Sullivan has been hard to peg on some issues (and catches heat on all sides for many), he's been clear that he was searching for U.S. conservatism to reflourish. As he notes in his latest column, he's supported...Read More

"Fifteen years or more at least" Mara Keisling was saying in response to the question I had just asked. Ms. Keisling is the Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and a partner with United ENDA, an...Read More

"Fifteen years or more at least" Mara Keisling was saying in response to the question I had just asked. Ms. Keisling is the Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and a partner with United ENDA, an...Read More

David Huebner will be sworn in today by Vice President Joe Biden at 3:45pm, EST in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building wing of the White House. He becomes the first politically appointed openly gay Senate-confirmed ambassador in US history. Guests...Read More

David Huebner will be sworn in today by Vice President Joe Biden at 3:45pm, EST in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building wing of the White House. He becomes the first politically appointed openly gay Senate-confirmed ambassador in US history. Guests...Read More

Many of you followed last spring's story about the uproar by some conservatives when the Alameda, California school board decided to adopt an LGBT-inclusive safe-schools curriculum. Now comes a new ruling stating that because the diversity curriculum doesn't constitute health...Read More

LGBT organizations have stepped forward to add their voices to those of LGBT citizens, allies and progressive groups calling for moving the Employment Non-Discrimination Act forward. But no amount of lobbying can make a difference if Congressman George Miller of...Read More

LGBT organizations have stepped forward to add their voices to those of LGBT citizens, allies and progressive groups calling for moving the Employment Non-Discrimination Act forward. But no amount of lobbying can make a difference if Congressman George Miller of...Read More

The fight for 2010 isn't dead yet: A coalition of Californian gay rights groups have said they are determined to get gay marriage back on the ballot next year. Jo Hoenninger of Restore Equality 2010, said: "This is a movement...Read More

It is 5 minutes to midnight on ENDA, with still a possibility of getting a vote this year if everyone pulls together, and what happens? Do we have LGBT and progressive media exploding with articles of protest and telling people...Read More

It is 5 minutes to midnight on ENDA, with still a possibility of getting a vote this year if everyone pulls together, and what happens? Do we have LGBT and progressive media exploding with articles of protest and telling people...Read More

With as much anticipation that went into the NY Senate's vote on same-sex marriage (I don't know how many times I read that the Senate would be voting on marriage "this week" or "today" or "soon" in 2009), one would...Read More

Linda Hirshman has an interesting post up at Salon about what the women's reproductive freedom movement can learn from teh gayz. I'm not going to blockquote it, just summarize it, so feel free to go read the whole thing and...Read More

There are two interesting cases in the 9th circuit right now dealing with health care benefits for same-sex partners. In both cases, the judges ruled that the federal government had an obligation to give those benefits, but for different reasons....Read More

Guess what's on next week's markup schedule? Not ENDA. The House Committee on Education and Labor has published its schedule for next week, and ENDA is not there. ENDA could be marked up the following week, but there wouldn't be...Read More

Guess what's on next week's markup schedule? Not ENDA. The House Committee on Education and Labor has published its schedule for next week, and ENDA is not there. ENDA could be marked up the following week, but there wouldn't be...Read More

30,000 more troops. 30,000 more men and women to Afghanistan. England is sending another 500. Not us, no no. We will take care of this mess, now won't we? I'm stunned by the number, by Obama's decision. Not surprised, mind...Read More

Today is World AIDS Day. AIDS has impacted many people we know and many communities of which we are part. Since I write a parenting blog, however, I want to highlight some recent statistics about AIDS and children. The numbers,...Read More

The DC city council just voted to introduce a bill to open up marriage to same-sex couples 13-2. They'll vote again in a month, and, if it wins again, same-sex marriage will be legal in the nation's capital. Also, New...Read More

The rumors of problems with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act have been circulating for weeks now, and yet there has been little response by the LGBT community and the wider progressive community. The markup of the bill has been postponed with...Read More

The rumors of problems with the Employment Non-Discrimination Act have been circulating for weeks now, and yet there has been little response by the LGBT community and the wider progressive community. The markup of the bill has been postponed with...Read More

Editors' Note: Maurice Clemmons was shot and killed earlier this morning by police. On Sunday night my partner and I were sitting on our couch as a police helicopter hovered overhead. We paused our movie to poke our heads outside...Read More

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Jordan Namerow is the Senior Communications Associate of American Jewish World Service (AJWS). She is also an alum of AJWS's Volunteer Corps and Alternative Break service programs in Uganda and Nicaragua respectively. I am not used...Read More

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Jordan Namerow is the Senior Communications Associate of American Jewish World Service (AJWS). She is also an alum of AJWS's Volunteer Corps and Alternative Break service programs in Uganda and Nicaragua respectively. I am not used...Read More